title: Interventions to reduce dependency in personal activities of daily living in community-dwelling adults who use homecare services: protocol for a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a growing demand for services whereby individuals receive assistance from care workers for personal care within the home. This has led to the development of re-ablement or restorative homecare services that provide time-limited input aimed at reducing dependency in personal activities of daily living, and preventing or delaying the need for further homecare support. However, little is currently known about how such interventions are configured, or how they may affect individuals' ability to carry out personal care independently.
  
  
  METHODS
  We will seek to identify studies that compare an intervention designed to reduce dependency in personal activities of daily living with routine input or usual care as the control. We will include randomised controlled trials, nonrandomised controlled trials, and controlled before and after studies. We will also include interrupted time series studies. We shall search electronic databases in addition to searching for ongoing and unpublished studies, and where appropriate will contact key authors. Two reviewers will independently screen articles for inclusion; will assess risk of bias using quality assessment tools; and will carry out data extraction using pre-prepared forms. Any disagreements, at any stage, will be resolved by discussion and the involvement of a third reviewer if needed. We will produce a narrative summary of the results. A meta-analysis will be conducted if sufficient data are available of appropriate quality and comparability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings from this review will inform future practice within homecare re-ablement services; will inform policy decisions about the structure, organisation and content of such services; and will identify areas where further research is warranted.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  This review protocol has been registered on the PROSPERO database (CRD42013004163).
authors.affiliation: Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing, University of Nottingham, B Floor, The Medical School, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. phillip.j.whitehead@nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Phillip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Avril E E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.forename: Marion F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Ruth H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Parry
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic